AstraZeneca: Bridging the Prilosec Earnings Gap

AstraZeneca appears to have navigated the integration process without much of the turmoil seen in other mergers. As part of that integration, the company created a new, centralized sales and marketing infrastructure intended to transform two mid-size European companies into a commercial global power. That new organization will soon confront the company's most immediate challenge: dealing with the genericization of the world's biggest drug, Prilosec. Whether AstraZeneca can meet that challenge will turn largely on the extent to which two late-stage drug candidates, Nexium and Crestor, can fill the Prilosec void. They'll require a commercialization effort far beyond that attempted by the former Astra or Zeneca.